{"id":1816,"date":"2016-04-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/providing-transformative-personalized-student-learning-opportunities-as-a-path-toward-equity\/"},"modified":"2019-12-16T12:54:54","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T17:54:54","slug":"providing-transformative-personalized-student-learning-opportunities-as-a-path-toward-equity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/providing-transformative-personalized-student-learning-opportunities-as-a-path-toward-equity\/","title":{"rendered":"Providing Transformative Personalized Student Learning Opportunities as a Path Toward Equity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog was originally posted on the Office of Ed Tech blog<\/a> on Monday, April 11, 2016.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Promoting equity and excellence at every level of education to ensure that every child has the opportunity to succeed is one of U.S. Secretary of Education John King\u2019s top three priorities over the coming year. How can new instructional models provide more powerful, personalized learning experiences driven by learner needs and interests to ensure innovation for equity?<\/p>\n

\"ScreenBy designing personalized learning models, students can get the necessary interventions and supports exactly when they need them to meet their learning goals. Educators using technology are empowered and are better able to meet each student\u2019s needs. These models can transform K-12 education and improve the educational outcomes of all students. Educators are personalizing learning with focused interventions, differentiated instruction and supports to meet the specific needs of historically underserved populations. By meeting kids where they are and using advanced technologies, students are able to achieve dramatically improved outcomes and experience successful attainment of learning goals. As Ty Cesene, Co-Director of Bronx Arena, stated<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t done innovating until 100% of our students are graduating.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To drive this shift toward equitable, personalized K-12 education systems, strong leadership is essential. There is a tremendous mindset shift required from using tools and resources for compliance to continuous improvement with a focus on empowerment through personalized learning. As many districts and schools begin this transformation toward implementing high-quality personalized learning opportunities for all students, leaders and educators need to develop the capacity to both design for equity and accelerate this shift to ensure that success is the only option.<\/p>\n

How Can Technology Help Us to Meet this Goal?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The 2016 National Education Technology Plan<\/a> sets a vision of equity that includes providing transformative learning opportunities grounded in the experience of the learner. When aligned with key learning outcomes, technology allows for greater access to digital resources, while adaptive learning can help pinpoint a student\u2019s level of mastery and create targeted recommendations for interventions.<\/p>\n

\"ScreenDeveloping leader and educator capacity in powerful, personalized learning models can ignite the shift toward providing learner-centered experiences for all students. By re-designing the system with equity at the forefront, we can prepare each student for success in college, career and citizenship.<\/p>\n

To help grow district leader capacity and prepare superintendents for systemic change, the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s Office of Educational Technology recently released\u00a0Personalized Professional Learning for Future Ready Leaders<\/a>. This new set of tools supports superintendents as they develop plans to implement research-based digital learning strategies to provide equitable access to transformative learning experiences for all students.<\/p>\n

Exemplary Personalized Student Learning policies and practices, as defined in this research synthesis<\/a> developed to validate and inform the work of this project, are demonstrated in leaders who:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Develop rigorous and relevant learning outcomes to guide instruction<\/li>\n
  • Support integrated assessments<\/li>\n
  • Provide competency-based learning pathways<\/li>\n
  • Create powerful learning designs where students learn through a diverse set of activities<\/li>\n
  • Provide on-demand access to high-quality, outcomes-aligned learning resources<\/li>\n
  • Foster a culture that supports new roles for teachers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Stories of Transformative Personalized Student Learning<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Learning Without Boundaries<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n

    \u201cSchool\u201d is no longer defined merely as a physical space, classrooms lined with rows of desks and a teacher who lectures at the front of the room\u200a\u2014\u200anor does a student\u2019s required curriculum have to involve a one-size-fits-all model that uses a single textbook. Personalized learning is anytime, anywhere learning in partnership with communities that bridges formal and informal learning experiences through the effective use of advanced technologies.<\/p>\n

    Future Ready Coalition partner iNACOL, an international nonprofit organization working to advance powerful, personalized, learner-centered experiences through competency-based, blended and online learning, recently released Implementing Competency Education in K-12 Systems: Insights from Local Leaders<\/em><\/a>. This report maps out district implementation strategies being used to convert traditional, time-based systems of education into personalized, competency-based learning infrastructures. In the report, Bill Zima, Principal of Mt. Ararat Middle School, described learning without boundaries as follows:<\/p>\n

    \u201cAs the navigators of learning, our role isn\u2019t to march students to their destinations, but to provide the feedback they need to get there themselves. While we try to keep them all on the path, we know that we will have some who will want to stop to smell the flowers\u2026 Nothing works for all students. But if we know where we need to get them, it makes it easier to guide them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    The report also tells the story of how Sanborn Regional High School designed Freshmen Learning Communities to help ninth graders build the 21st century skills they need for success and identify where students need additional support. They are finding that the conversations about students with special education needs are more focused on learning and progress than behaviors. Since this discovery, the understanding of standards, of differentiated instruction, and of accommodations for assessments has become much more clear and intentional.<\/p>\n

    Kettle Moraine, a Future Ready district, created a district-wide personalized student learning program focused on learning without boundaries.<\/p>\n

    \u201cPersonalized learning is allowing the individual their voice and their interest to drive the learning and to not be bound by, \u2018This is how school looks. This is what we\u2019re gonna learn at this time, my way.\u2019 So there are no boundaries. Students can come in with their ideas, and they co-create their learning plans with the teacher.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

    -Theresa Ewald, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Kettle Moraine School District<\/em><\/p>\n